What Does Psalm 25:17 Mean in the King James?
The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
“Enlarged” turns distress into a spatial paradox: anguish spreads through the heart, while the prayer seeks an exit from its constriction.
THE MEANING
The speaker feels trouble widening through the heart and asks to be brought out of the pressure. The verse lets both realities stand together: distress is large now, and an exit is still being sought.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It dissolves the belief that once distress fills the heart, it has become the whole horizon; the prayer still names a way out.
THE ROOT
צָרוֹת
tsarot
GROWS FROM
צרר
To bind, constrict, or press into a narrow space.
The root צרר (tsarar, bind or constrict) folds “troubles” into an image of pressure and narrowing. That makes “enlarged” especially charged: what is narrow within the word is spreading until it occupies the heart.
ALSO GROWS
tsar: Narrow, tight; distress or an adversary.
צַר
It names trouble through the feeling of being pressed into a narrow space.
tsarah: Trouble, distress.
צָרָה
This is the singular form behind the verse’s plural “troubles.”
tsror: A bundle, something bound together.
צְרוֹר
The image of binding echoes how trouble can gather and tighten around the heart.
הִרְחִיבוּ
hirchivu
GROWS FROM
רחב
To be broad or spacious; in a causative form, to make broad.
“enlarged” in this verse is hirchivu. The verb comes from רחב (rachav, be broad or spacious): the distress has not merely increased in quantity; it has spread spatially. The same root yields מֶרְחָב (merchav, a broad place), so the prayer points toward open room beyond the heart filled by distress.
ALSO GROWS
rachav: Broad, wide.
רָחָב
It gives the verse’s “enlarged” its spatial sense.
merchav: A broad place, open space.
מֶרְחָב
This branch names the spaciousness that contrasts with distress.
הוֹצִיאֵנִי
hotsi'eni
GROWS FROM
יצא
To go out or come out; in a causative form, to bring out.
“bring me out” in this verse is hotsi'eni. The form makes the speaker the one brought out: the request is for emergence from a constricting place. Its movement matches the verse’s images of pressure and widening without pretending the distress is absent.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: To go out or come out.
יָצָא
It is the basic movement carried by “bring me out.”
motsa: An exit, outlet, or way out.
מוֹצָא
It gives the plea the shape of an actual way out of pressure.
THE PATTERN
Scripture pictures relief as passage from confinement into room, sometimes an open place, sometimes liberty.
I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.THE THREAD
I called upon the LORD in distress: the LORD answered me, and set me in a large place.Psalm 118:5 places מֵצַר (metsar, straits or distress) beside מֶרְחָב (merchav, broad place): constriction and widening share the verse. It makes the geometry of this plea visible, trouble expands within the heart, while the sought answer is an exit into space.
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